Late Pleistocene human remains from Wezmeh Cave, western Iran

Erik Trinkaus , Fereidoun Biglari , Marjan Mashkour (1) , Hervé Monchot , Jean-Louis Reyss (2, 3) , Hélène Rougier , Saman Heydari , Kamyar Abdi

1 AASPE - Archéozoologie, archéobotanique : sociétés, pratiques et environnements
2 LSCE - Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette]
3 OCEANIS - Océan et Interfaces

Paleontological analysis of remains fromWezmeh Cave in western Iran have yielded a HoloceneChalcolithic archeological assemblage, a rich Late Pleis-tocene carnivore faunal assemblage, and an isolated un-erupted human maxillary premolar (P3 or possibly P4).Species representation and U-series dating of faunalteeth place the carnivore assemblage during oxygen iso-tope stages (OIS) 3 and 2, and noninvasive gamma spec-trometry dating of the human premolar places it at leastas old as early OIS 2. The human premolar crown mor-phology is not diagnostic of late archaic versus earlymodern human affinities, but its buccolingual diameterplaces it at the upper limits of Late Pleistocene humanP3 and P4dimensions and separate from a terminalPleistocene regional sample. Wezmeh Cave thereforeprovides additional Paleolithic human remains from theZagros Mountains and further documents Late Pleisto-cene human association with otherwise carnivore-domi-nated cave assemblages. Am J Phys Anthropol 135:371–378, 2008. V V C 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc

Mots clés: human paleontology; modern humans; Neandertals; dentition; carnivores; Zagros

Domaines: Océan, Atmosphère; Interfaces continentales, environnement

Erik Trinkaus, Fereidoun Biglari, Marjan Mashkour, Hervé Monchot, Jean-Louis Reyss, et al.. Late Pleistocene human remains from Wezmeh Cave, western Iran. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2008, 135 (4), pp.371-378. ⟨10.1002/ajpa.20753⟩. ⟨hal-03194106⟩